


all along there was you

by imaginationismymuse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 3 + 1 Things, Allura (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Because Keith always knew he loved Shiro, Coran is Done with their Shit, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, I needed to write this for me, Idiots in Love, Lance is shook, Love Confessions, M/M, Minor Allura/Lance (Voltron), Mutual Pining, POV Outsider, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), Though I focus the most on Shiro, soft sheith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29468121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginationismymuse/pseuds/imaginationismymuse
Summary: Coran has insomnia. Unsurprising for someone who slept for ten-thousand years. However, what Coran sees on his night watch is. The Black Paladin is everything a leader should be - strong, compassionate, fearless, quick-thinking. He stands tall, immovable. Unless it’s Keith. Then Shiro, wise and brave, crumbles.Honestly, the longer Coran watches them, the more he wants to wring their necks.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 85





	all along there was you

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for taking the time to read this little 'write this so I don't murder Dreamworks' fix-it fic. I love my boys and they deserved better (so did Allura and Lance).

_all along there was you_

1\. delicate 

It’s been almost three movements since he woke after ten-thousand deca-phoebes in cryo and Coran can rarely sleep for more than two vargas a night. He’s tired but even the idea of sleeping still gives him the jitters. And it’s not the _sleeping_ part that sends that uncomfortable squirming through his stomach; he’s always been a good sleeper. No, it’s the _waking_. 

Bearing in mind, the last time he woke up, ten-thousand years had passed and his entire planet and people, everyone he loved (except Allura), were gone.

He’s pragmatic enough to understand his trauma even if he's not quite ready to unpack it. So for now, he’s content to keep an eye on the Castle and its occupants from his station on the command deck, spending his nights flicking through the various surveillance monitors.

No one is sleeping peacefully tonight, it seems.

The smallest one (Pidge) with the too big glasses is hunched over a primitive laptop in her bed. There's no light except the blue one from the screen and Coran frowns. That's not good for her eyes. He really must have a chat with her. This is not the first time he's found her like this.

The Blue and Yellow Paladins (Lance and Hunk) are in the common room, flicking through the monitor (or TV as they call it). Coran recognises the movie, an old Altean classic, but neither paladin is really _watching_ and he suspects they’re just using it as an excuse not to be alone. He can’t blame them. 

Allura is talking with her father. Coran skips over her quickly, not wanting to intrude. Secretly, he worries about how much time Allura spends locked in that chamber with her father's consciousness but far be it from him to interfere with how she chooses to grieve. 

The Red Paladin (Keith) is in his room and he’s asleep at least, curled into a tight ball in the top corner of his bed. His blanket covers most of him, but Coran can make out the inkspill of dark hair fanning across the white pillowcase. It’s somewhat adorable, not a word that suits his initial impression of the Red Paladin (prickly, _reckless_ , untrusting are all better words). Perhaps Number Four was more the cub than the lion - in sleep, at least.

The door to Number Four’s room slides open and Coran watches with interest as the Black Paladin (Shiro) steps inside. Now Number One is going to be a fine leader, of this Coran is sure. He is brave, compassionate, fearless, immovable, unbending, a pillar the other paladins can rely on. _He_ will redeem the Black Lion. 

It fits in with Coran's perception of him that he would check in on his fellow paladins, though it is curious that he's keyed into the Red Paladin's room.

Shiro crosses the room to where his teammate sleeps. Said teammate stirs and one eye pops out from under his blanket, baring his teeth (which would have been much more effective if he’d had actual _fangs_ and not blunt, human teeth) but stops when he spots Shiro. Number Four tilts his head, considering, then sits up, all bed-head and blinking eyes, and opens his arms. Coran leans forward, riveted, when Number One drops onto the bed and crawls forward into Keith’s arms. 

It’s almost comical. Shiro is so _large_ , all rippling muscle and power, and Keith is small, lithe and feral. Shiro _dwarfs_ him but somehow still manages to curl up against Keith’s small chest, head against his heart. Keith’s expression is soft and fond and so utterly unexpected that Coran almost chokes on the nunvil he’s been sipping to keep some of the demons at bay.

This is _most_ unexpected. Coran is good at reading people but now he feels he’s misread these two. 

Keith says something that makes Shiro laugh and the sound, a horrible, braying noise that Coran hasn’t heard before, echoes over the monitor. Keith’s smile is small and so pleased as he nuzzles the top of Shiro’s head. Shiro seems to relax, tension Coran had not even guessed was there draining out of him. The Black Paladin uncoils himself, lounging back against his smaller second-in-command’s chest.

They remain like that for at least a varga (Shiro melting further and further into Keith, as though he's trying to become one with him), until Shiro shifts and moves away. Coran assumes it's because he's becoming too heavy for Keith but no, Shiro climbs _off the bed_. Keith lets him but Coran doesn't miss the slight fall in his expression. Keith says something and pats the bed but gets a shake of the head and a nervous hand scrubbing the back of the head as a response. Then Shiro leaves. Keith stares after him but doesn't _go after him_. Instead, he settles back into his ball, curled even tighter than before, and buries himself back under his blanket, hair not even visible this time. 

Coran falls back against his chair. Oh yes, he's misread these two. They're both _idiots_. Ancients, help him. 

  
  


2\. idiot 

Coran is quick to realise that Number One doesn't know he's in love with Number Four. The Red Paladin is a bit brighter and knows but _does nothing about it_. Maybe he's not brighter? Either way, his old, romantic heart wants to wring their _stupid, clueless_ necks. 

In war, there is no time for hesitation, for wondering, for **later**. 

Luckily, Shiro figures it out the first time Keith is injured. 

Like all things Number Four does, it’s done in spectacular, reckless fashion (and this is a separate grievance Coran has with Keith). Keith _pushes_ until he can’t and then he pushes more. Coran always knew that someday this would happen. There's only so many near misses that can happen before something hits.

It was meant to be a simple reconnaissance mission at a Galra outpost. 

It took moments to go to hell. 

The base has a druid. This was not the first druid Keith had encountered (and Coran is still not sure how he made it out of _that_ encounter alive) and so he had charged in, unheeding of his teammates' warnings. A part of Coran is sure Keith does this out of some misplaced selflessness, to spare the other paladins from pain he is well-used to.

But this time he is outmatched. 

Coran can’t see what’s happening but he can hear when Keith lets out a sharp, piercing cry and his comm goes silent. 

The other paladins call for him. 

Pidge is yelling that she can’t get a reading from his paladin armor, sounding scared and far too young. 

Lance, for all he spends his time antagonising Keith, spots him first from his vantage point above the base and what he says makes Coran’s blood go cold.

“The druid has him.” His voice is small. “Guys, he’s not looking so good.”

Shiro goes **ballistic** as does the Red Lion. Her roar echoes through the Castleship. 

“What are we doing, Shiro?” Hunk yells.

“Lance, cover Shiro and make sure he gets to Keith,” Allura orders when nothing but grunts and the sounds of crushing metal is heard over the comms. “Hunk, get Pidge out of there.” 

“I hacked their surveillance system.” It’s Pidge. “The druid is moving towards the hangar. I think they want to get Keith off the base. Shiro, you need to get there now.”

“I’ll find him,” Shiro _snarls_. “They don’t get to have him. Lance, get to your Lion and be ready to come get us.” 

It’s over in a matter of minutes. Shiro plows through the sentries (single-minded in his task) and Pidge sets the base to blow before Hunk scoops her up, ignoring her protests. The druid chooses its own life over its prize, leaving Keith crumpled in a hallway, fleeing to its ship. Lance doesn’t have to get them, which is good because the base deploys its drones and the Blue and Yellow Lions have their hands full. The Red Lion tears free from her hangar and races for the moon’s surface, ripping through the base to get to her paladin. She even lets Shiro pilot her (and the significance of Shiro and Keith piloting each other’s Lions is not lost on Coran). 

As soon as the Red Lion lands in her hangar, opening her giant maw, Shiro is out and running for the medbay. Keith is cradled against his chest, pale and unmoving. His eyes are open and they glow magenta with corrupted quintessence. The team races after him.

“We’re here.” Shiro is _pleading_ , begging even with the boy in his arms, when they all burst into the medbay. “Stay with me, baby. Stay with me.”

And Coran watches as all the paladins realise what’s between their leader and his second at the same time. 

Lance, who almost caused a collision with Hunk at Shiro’s use of the word _baby_ , squeaks out, “Baby?” 

Shiro tosses him a confused look then his focus is back on Keith and the other paladins go through their second realisation. _Shiro doesn’t know_. Pidge frowns. Hunk gapes. Lance sputters something nonsensical. Allura just raises her eyebrows then gets back to the task of getting Keith into the healing suit, muttering something in Altean about how thick-headed humans are (Coran is inclined to agree).

In the end, Keith suffers from more internal damage than external. Whatever magic the druid hit him with fried his insides, continuing to drain him of his surprising amounts of quintessence even after he was hit. He’s almost dead when he’s put into the pod and it takes almost a full quintant for the pod to repair the damage. 

Shiro refuses to leave Keith alone, though he has enough presence of mind to order the rest of the team to go rest, that he’ll call them when Keith wakes up. They all look shell-shocked as they trudge out. In any other situation, Coran would find it amusing.

“Shiro, Keith is going to be fine,” Allura is saying. Her hand is curled over his shoulder and his head is bowed, Galra hand fisted against the pod. She waits a heartbeat before going in for the kill. “You love him.” 

It's not a question. 

Shiro’s head snaps up, eyes wide and wild. “What?” he chokes out. 

“You love him,” Allura repeats softly. She studies him a moment. “You didn’t know.” 

Shiro **falters** and it almost breaks Coran’s heart to see it. Their fearless, brave leader looks _delicate_. “I - I - I…” 

“Idiot,” Allura chides.

There’s no response (Coran suspects Shiro is going through some sort of internal crisis) and he and Allura leave once they’re assured Keith is healing as he should be. Coran settles down at his monitor in the command deck with his nunvil. 

“What a thing,” he muses, watching as Shiro stands in front of Keith’s pod, palm flat against the glass. He looks wonderstruck. 

What a thing indeed.

3\. baby 

Shiro is a slow learner (a surprising piece of information). He waits until the next time Keith almost dies to tell him. _Apparently_ his own return from death wasn't a harrowing enough experience to spur him into action. So he does it after Sendak's invasion is defeated, after the Lions crash to Earth, after the paladins fall into a quintessence-induced slumber. Injuries litter their beleaguered bodies and, of course, Keith’s are the worst. He is sensitive to quintessence and he almost bled out when the Black Lion refused to open until all the other paladins had been rescued (it has Keith’s signature written all over it, the self-sacrificing idiot). 

Coran is patrolling the halls of the hospital. He’s filled with restless energy, stuck in limbo between the gut-wrenching fear he'd felt over the past week and the overflowing joy he feels now. Allura finally woke this morning followed by Keith not hours later (during Shiro’s speech and Coran has never seen the Atlas captain run as fast as he did once he heard the news). 

He walks past Keith’s door to find it ajar and that causes enough alarm for him to peek in. He expected Shiro to be there but he didn't expect him to be bent over Keith, hand cupping the back of Keith’s head, their lips sealed together. He damn near ruins it by gasping but manages to contain himself. 

“You’re _everything_ ,” Shiro murmurs against Keith’s lips, no less fierce despite the quietness of his tone. “There is no universe where I don’t want you, Keith.” 

Keith swallows, indigo eyes wide with disbelief and something so fragile ( _hope_ , Coran realises, and he can’t help the tears that well in his own eyes). “You want _me_?” His voice is a hoarse whisper. 

“More than anything,” Shiro confesses, pressing his forehead against Keith’s. Keith gasps. “I’m sorry it took me so long to tell you.” 

“I would’ve waited forever,” Keith says after a moment. The smallest smile is burgeoning on his lips, and it’s the most precious thing Coran’s seen. “But I’m glad you didn’t make me.” 

Shiro huffs a laugh. “Me too, baby. Me too.”

“Baby, huh?” 

Shiro goes a delightful shade of pink and Coran steps back from the door, wiping at his misty eyes. Finally, he thinks. Finally. 

  
  


+1 peace 

The war ended five years ago. Allura had managed to close the rift with the sacrifice of the Lions and Honerva. Peace was hard won but it has been _won_. There are Galra cells that still exist and others who have risen to take advantage of the power vacuum. The Universal Coalition (renamed after the Lions left) has its work cut out for it. 

Allura, now Queen Allura of New Altea, leads the Coalition. Lance is at her side (not as king, at his own choice, but as her husband), but splits his time between New Altea and his family’s farm on Earth. 

Hunk is Earth’s ambassador to the Coalition, and manages his time between his official duties and his growing number of restaurants. With Shay to help, Coran is sure he’ll manage.

Romelle took up the position of New Altea’s ambassador - a position he turned down (he was retired, thank you very much). 

Pidge and Matt have a lab on Olkarion, working for themselves and their love of science - but to the benefit of the Universal Coalition. Coran knows for certain that Pidge still searches for the Lions (and that all the paladins stop by to help whenever they can).

As for Shiro and Keith, they integrated the Blade of Marmora into the Coalition. Keith leads the Blades on peacekeeping missions on the Coalition's behalf and Shiro remains captain of the Coalition’s Atlas, which (incidentally) serves as headquarters for the Blade of Marmora. Both have worked hard to crush rising Galra cells, emerging piracy routes, and maintain peace through the universe. There will always be something that needs to be done - ten-thousand years of oppression isn't ended easily, despite the fact that Zarkon and Haggar are gone. 

But Coran knows they wouldn’t have it any other way. They’re a little masochistic like that ( _workaholics_ is the human term, he's been told).

Right now though, Coran has the great pleasure of standing before them, at their wedding, as he details the slow-winded, frustrating journey these two idiots took to love. Shiro has the good grace to look chastised and Keith grins, sharp and just a little wicked, at his new husband’s embarrassment.

“Never have I seen two beings more suited to one another than our Black Paladins.” A cheer rouses through the crowd. He hears Lance’s indignant protest too. “The universe did its best to keep you apart and I have never been more pleased at its failure.” He raises his flute of champagne. “Shiro, Keith, you fought for your peace and found it in each other.”

Much later, when the lights are low and most of the wedding guests have retired. Coran does one final walkthrough to make sure no one is passed out anywhere (he found Pidge under a table earlier with one of her trash fluffs so his concerns aren’t unfounded). When he checks the rooftop balcony, he finds Shiro and Keith. 

Shiro’s nose is pressed to Keith’s temple and he’s breathing him in. 

Keith faces to the east, where the sun is starting to colour the sky indigo like his eyes. 

Their hands are clasped together. 

“Coran was right,” Keith murmurs, soft enough that even Coran's Altean hearing almost doesn’t pick it up. 

“About what? How embarrassingly long it took for us -” At this, Keith knocks his head against Shiro’s nose gently. “Okay, _me_. How long it took me to realise I was in love with you.”

“Well, he _was_ right about that.” Shiro nips at Keith’s earlobe, earning a soft yelp. He goes to do it again but Keith cranes his neck away. “Takashi, let me finish.”

“I’m listening, baby.” 

Keith turns his head, nose bumping Shiro’s. “You are my peace.”

Shiro’s hand, the one not entangled with Keith’s, comes up to cup his face. The gold of his ring catches the light of the candles that are spread out around the space. “And you’re mine.” 

Keith's nose wrinkles. "Sappy."

"You started it." And now there’s a pout on Shiro’s face - sometimes Coran understands why everyone teases Shiro that he’s seven-years old.

Keith tugs on Shiro's hand, stepping back. "Let’s go.” 

Shiro seems helpless to do anything but follow his new husband. “Where?”

Keith goes up on his toes, kissing Shiro, tongue sliding into his mouth, swallowing Shiro’s surprised inhale. “I’m going to _destroy_ you -” and Shiro’s breath hitches “- at hoverbike racing.” 

Shiro blinks at him and Keith laughs, low and rasping. He dances out of reach when Shiro makes a grab for him, growling something that Coran doesn’t catch. Keith spins around and Coran ducks out of sight just in time. He grins to himself. He can hear Shiro’s protests and Keith’s _giggles_ when he lets Shiro catch him (because no one can catch Keith unless he wants to be caught and Shiro’s the only one who’s ever had that honour) and shakes his head. 

They really are idiots.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, thank you for reading this! All comments and kudos are, of course, appreciated but really I just hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.


End file.
